Underground
by StopTalkingToMe
Summary: AU Kitty and Kurt aren't housed in the accepting X-Mansion, but instead live on the streets, trying to survive the violent mob that forms anytime a mutant is discovered. When their paths cross can they realize what was meant to be, or will they be found by The Mob first? A darker Kurtty. The rating may be raised as the story progresses. Chapter 13 is up!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from X-Men Evolution, and have no money to take anyway. Don't sue. Just read and tell me what you think.**

**A/N:**_ Italicized means that it's in their head, to themselves. _Please let me know what you think. Oh, and one other thing. I'm sorry if I'm murdering his accent, but if you have any suggestions, let me know!_  
_

* * *

His feet pounded against the pavement as his run jolted into a sprint.

"He's getting away!"

He was on all fours now as he desperately tried to escape the growing number of people chasing him.

"Get the monster!"

The adrenaline in his system made him run faster than normal, but it didn't seem to be enough as the distance between him and the mob continued to be terrifyingly short.

"Don't let him escape alive!"

He came to a fork in the road and without thinking took the path to the right, not checking where each one lead.

His eyes widened as he found that he had trapped himself in a dead end. He tried in vain to climb the wall that trapped him, but it was no use. He was breathing faster and faster as yet another wall formed at the mouth of the alley, this time, it was made not of bricks and cements, but of people who wanted his blood. He automatically backed up as much as he could, trying to put as much distance between him and them as possible.

They were very close now. He could feel the heat coming off their torches; see the venom in their eyes.

_Please just leave me alone. I just want to be left alone!_

One individual stepped in front of the rest of the crowd, most likely the leader of this manhunt. He was tall and well built, his blond hair shimmered in the light of the torches as he towered over his victim.

"This freak isn't getting away."

The mob let out a loud response, a collection of cheers and cries for blood.

"Vhat do you vant from me?!"

The man faced him, his question actually making the man address him. It seemed he did not wish to converse with something as pitiful as this "freak".

He only glared, his eyes showed no signs of mercy. Eventually he smirked.

"I want you to die. Can you do that for me?"

He was helpless as the man held a bat above his head. The man's malicious grin spread wider as he saw the paralyzing fear in his eyes.

Right as he was about to swing, a voice came from behind.

"Dying? I don't think he can make any promises."

He didn't even have time to turn around before he was pulled through the wall.

* * *

She had been lying on the rooftop of an abandoned warehouse in a quiet part of the city. It rarely had few visitors during the day and was completely devoid of human life after nightfall. She knew she wouldn't be bothered.

Besides the lack of people, she also liked the place because it had such a great view of the stars. She loved the stars. It was the one thing that didn't change where ever she went, which was good, because she moved around so much she didn't really have a place she could think of as home. Not to say that had always been the case…

As she stared at the stars her mind started to wonder to what home used to be, when she heard someone approaching, fast.

She grabbed her pack and proceeded to quickly crawl to the edge of the roof. She peered over the edge, only to find that it was actually a lot of someones, running down the normally abandoned street.

As she looked out she couldn't help but notice that they were running. All of them. What were they running from?

But then she looked a little further up the road.

_Or who are they chasing?_

She could make out someone running-no-sprinting,from The Mob. As she looked closer at the boy attempting to flee she saw that he was running on all four of his appendages. Was that a tail wiping out behind his trench coat?

Suddenly it all made sense. She really should have been able to recognize an angry mob by now.

She turned, looking for an escape route. If she crawled down the building's ladder near the back, she could head north, up to the docks and escape along them unnoticed.

Before she left, she looked at The Mob again to make sure that they were still heading south. Then she glanced at the boy with the tail again.

_Just leave him. It'll satisfy The Mob long enough to get away and you won't have to worry about them for another week or two._

She knew she was right, but something about the boy with the tail was pulling her back to him.

_He was the one stupid enough to get caught out in public. Leave him while there's still time. _

Before she could convince herself, she looked into his eyes, and saw nothing but fear and terror.

She recognized that look. She had worn it before, in a situation that was quite similar to his. She sighed.

_What's wrong with me?_

She got a running start and leaped from one warehouse to the next, continuing until she caught up to the boy with the tail. She saw where he was headed and tried to will him away.

_Don't turn right! Don't turn right!_

He made a right turn.

_Dammit!_

He had just got himself stuck in a dead end.

_Great. Just great._

She adjusted her path accordingly and suddenly, she was standing directly above him, looking down on his predicament.

_You can still back out! No one has seen you yet!_

Her logical side had a good point, but now that she was even closer, she could see the absolute panic flowing from his eyes. Oh wow his eyes. They were a brilliant shade of gold, but they looked corrupted by his terror. Suddenly she wanted nothing more than for him to be safe.

She slid halfway down a nearby fire escape and made sure she landed on the building he was backed up against, by the time The Mob was rounding the corner. She took a deep breath and then phased through the ceiling. She landed nimbly on a pile of crates before finding the place on the wall where she would need to be. Her face was all concentration as she pulled nothing more than her torso through the wall.

Her guess was spot on as she came in directly behind him, his frantic tail nearly hitting her in the face. The Mob hadn't seen her and neither had he.

"I want you to die. Can you do that for me?"

She looked up. The man who had said it was now wielding a bat above the teen's head, and she couldn't help but smirk.

"Dying? I don't think he can make any promises."

She phased the boy through the wall with her before the evil man she knew too well could finish his swing.

* * *

**A/N:** What do you guys think? Too much malice? Not enough? Please let me know, I'm seriously winging it here. This is the first non-one-shot I have ever written. I'm hoping to write and upload the next chapter soon. Please review so that this can be better!


	2. Chapter 2

He fell to the floor gasping. It felt like he had just had a brick lodged in his throat and then removed all at the same time. His lungs felt less than spectacular to say the least.

"Oh stop being such a drama queen."

There was that voice again. He spun around to find a petite brunette, arms crossed, rolling her eyes at him. His eyes widened. She was stunning, even in ripped capris and a faded jacket.

"Schutzengel?" he whispered in disbelief. She raised her eyebrows. "What did you just call me?"

He tried to clear his head. "Vhat happened….vhere are ve?"

She could understand his confusion, but they didn't really have time for this.

"I can phase myself and other things I touch through solid objects. That's how you got from there", she said, pointing to the wall, "to here", pointing to where he currently sat on the ground.

His mind was still foggy. "You vhat?"

"I move things through other things! Listen, we don't really have time for this. Once the mob figures out where we are, they are going to break in here too. And I'm sure they are going to be even more irritated than usual."

He looked at her like she was crazy. "Irritated? You call zat 'irritated'?!"

"Yeah, they really hate it when you make them work for it. Come on, get up."

She held out her hand. He suddenly realized that he was still on the ground from his little panic attack. He went to grab her hand, but then abruptly pulled his deformed three-fingered hand back into his sleeve.

She gave him a confused look before shaking it off.

"Whatever. We have to go, they'll be coming soon."

He got up on his own accord and asked, "Vhat's the plan? If you're right, it's not like ve can just stroll out ze front door."

"Which is exactly why we're going up", she said, moving towards the stack of crates and motioning for him to follow.

It was only once they climbed to the top that he noticed it.

"There's no access hatch."

"So?" She sighed as he gave her another puzzled look. "Just watch."

She jumped off of the top crate and phased through the ceiling. Half a second later, she stuck her head down through the cement again. "Your turn. Give me your hand."

He slowly let his furry hand out of his sleeve, trying not to scare her as he gently grasped hers.

She didn't even flinch when his fur mad contact with her skin. She simply pulled him up to the roof like she didn't care.

He was oddly surprised by her reaction and let a "Thanks" slip from his lips.

"Of course. Now let's get out of here Mr. Tall Dark and Furry" she said teasingly.

"Kurt", he said abruptly. "My name is Kurt."

"Kitty. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Now let's get out of here before they roast us alive shall we?"

"Sounds like a vonderful plan. How are ve going to do that?"

"So many questions, so little imagination", she said, tapping her head. "How agile are you from a scale of one to ten?"

He smirked. "Vell, I don't like to brag…"

"Great. Follow me," was all Kitty said before jumping off of the building.

* * *

_What the hell?!_

He ran to the edge and looked down. To his relief, she was standing on a neighboring building's roof, just a few feet down.

"What are you waiting for? Get your ass down here before we get tarred and feathered!"

Kurt smirked again. The girl had a way with words. He followed her down to the adjoining building and across the rooftops as she led the way. After about five minutes Kitty found out why he "didn't want to brag" when he started adding flips and spins as they jumped over allies. "Show-off" she muttered under her breath.

As they continued along, he finally he looked over at her, "Um, vhere are ve going?"

"Oh don't worry, it's someplace safe". The way she said "safe" sounded a little less convincing than the rest of her sentence, but he decided to ignore it.

"Vhen vill ve get there?"

"Remember what I said about the questions?"

He shut his mouth. He was just grateful to be alive at that point. And saved by a beautiful girl who didn't scream when she saw him, no less! This night had taken a surprising turn for the best, and he didn't really care where they were headed.

Kitty suddenly stopped after they had hurdled buildings for maybe a half hour.

"Vhat is it?"

"This is where we get off." She pointed to the building's fire escape and started down it. When they reached the bottom, Kurt looked around. There was no sign that anyone had been around the last couple blocks in a very long time. He hadn't taken the time to actually notice any of their surroundings while they traveled. He was too busy sneaking glances at her. Her pale face looked quite magnificent in the moonlight.

"Vhere is everybody?"

"We're on the outskirts of town now." She started walking. "Actually, we crossed the official city line about ten minutes ago", she added nonchalantly, stuffing her hands in her jacket pockets.

"These buildings were abandoned years ago. Something about a gas leak. It scared away all of the inhabitants and by the time it was fixed, the place had such a bad rep, the real estate company that rented out the buildings went out of business."

She cut off of the sidewalk and started moving out into the uncut grass. Kurt gave a confused look but kept following her. The grass gave way to a forest that bordered the city, and after walking for another four minutes or so, she took a sharp right turn at a distinctly marred tree. Soon the steadiness of the trees was disrupted by a clearing. A little cement structure was standing there, cracked, covered in overgrown, untended plants, and surrounded by trees.

"Vhat is zis place?"

"It's an old access point for the city's underground tunnel system."

"Vhat?"

'The city had them built for maintenance workers to access the city's sewage pipes and electrical lines. This one was abandoned when those last few buildings back there were."

"Vhy?"

"They had no reason to keep it open. You don't need maintenance workers for pipes that don't need maintenance. Those buildings were the only ones that used them, and when they shut down, so did the pipes."

By this point they had come to the large rusted door. With a little bit of effort, she turned the ancient handle and the door creaked open. She held the door for Kurt and it slammed shut as soon as she let go.

Industrial lights adorned the hallway as Kitty led Kurt along the access tunnel.

"I zought you said everything vas shut off."

"It was. You'll see. I made the generator myself."

"You built it yourself?"

Kitty laughed. "I was a classic bookworm before…" The smile faded from her face.

She didn't finish her sentence. She didn't need to. He knew what she meant.

_Before you were a mutant. _

_Before_ _you were labeled a freak._

_Before your life was ruined. _

They both starred at the floor as a silence filled the space between them.

Eventually, Kurt looked up. "I never officially thanked you for saving me."

"You didn't have to."

"But I just have to ask…" Kurt looked into Kitty's eyes. "Vhy?"

"Why not?"

"Ve both know vhy not. You risked your life for a complete stranger. Vhy?"

"I…" Finally Kitty broke his gaze and looked down. She was staring at a grease spot on the floor quite intently as she spoke:

"I saw that look in your eyes. You were…terrified to say the least".

"I've been there. I guess I just didn't want you to have to deal with that too."

Kitty finally looked up at Kurt. For a second they just stood there, looking at each other.

"Vell thank you. Not just for saving me either. Thank you for not...freaking out."

Kitty had a genuinely confused look on her face. "Why would I freak out?"

Kurt let out a chuckle. "Because of all…zis" he gestured to his body.

Kurt's body wasn't exactly "normal". He had three thick fingers on each hand instead of two, and his feet consisted of two large toes instead of five. His entire body was covered in blue fur, his indigo hair hanging just below his chin. His bangs nearly covered up his eyes. _What a shame that would be_ Kitty thought to herself. His eyes were bright topaz and she had never seen anything more stunning.

She just let out a laugh. "Kurt, this is probably going to sound crazy to you, but I don't care! I've seen a lot worse."

"Really?"

Kitty fumbled with her sentence. "Well…not really, but I still don't care."

"Vell thanks."

"The others won't either. We try not to judge people by their faces around here", she added matter-of-factly.

"Others?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure they'll just adore you!" Kitty winked, then opened yet another heavy door before yelling, "Honey, I'm home!"

* * *

**A/N: **How was Kurt's accent? I feel like there were too many "vhere"s and "vhy"s! Let me know if I got it right.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Sorry! This was a busy week for me and I didn't have time to write the next chapter. Sorry if it's a little short. As always, let me know what you think! Any constructive criticism is welcome.

* * *

Kitty dragged him into the room with her. The vaulted cement ceiling was bordered by identical cement walls. The industrial lights that had hung down the hallways now circled around the base of the ceiling. On the opposite end of the room there was a carbon copy of the door that let them in. Above it hung a rusted, warn sign that read, "_ELECTRICAL TUNNEL SYSTEM ACCESS_". Kurt noted that there were several other doors around the room. Some of their signs had fallen off completely.

An old wooden table sat below a hanging light in the middle of the room. It had been thrown on top of a rug that was missing its corners and several spots in the center too. It was surrounded by several mismatched chairs, all in varying states of decay themselves. The worst of them was missing a leg and had been propped up with a pile of old self-help books.

Two teens were seated at the table. The long haired redhead head greatly contrasted the boy she was playing cards with. His was almost buzz-cut short and bleached blond. Neither of them looked up as Kitty walked in.

"I'm coming in, make sure you're decent!"

Neither the redhead nor the blond looked up as Kitty made the announcement. Kitty just glared at the back of their heads. She cleared her throat multiple times, but when they continued to ignore her, she yelled "WE HAVE A GUEST!"

Suddenly they both turned to Kitty and Kurt. Confusion struck their faces.

"Well are you just going to sit there? Get off your ass and come meet him already!"

The redhead got up and was slowly joined by the blond.

"This is Kurt."

"Um, Hi Kurt", said the redhead, "I'm Jean, and this is Evan." She gestured to the boy next to her.

"So what are we, a charity now?" was all he said in response.

Kurt looked at Evan now. His arms were crossed as he glared back.

"Excuse me?" Kitty raised her eyebrows.

"You heard me."

Kitty glared. "What are you saying Evan?"

"I'm saying we don't need another mouth to feed!"

Kitty's voice matched Evan's volume now. "Another mouth to feed? Really Evan?!"

"Yes Kitty! You know we can't just feed every little charity-case you find out on the street!"

Kitty's voice kept getting louder and louder. "I didn't just 'find him on the street'!"

"Oh really? So you just so happened to run into this guy while you were out there, doing whatever it is you do when you leave?!"

Kitty's face was bright red and she was practically screaming.

"I pulled him through a wall right before a 'friend' of ours was about to bring a bat down on his head! If I hadn't been there, his head would be mounted on the mob's wall!"

Silence filled the room as the last of Kitty's voice echoed away. Evan's anger faded from his face as he looked down at his feet. They all stood there silently until Evan finally spoke. "I'm sorry…I didn't know."

Now Kitty was the one with the crossed arms. "Of course you didn't know. You didn't even let me tell you what happened before you freaked out."

Evan just starred at the ground.

Finally Jean spoke up, "We can always find more food somewhere." She looked up at Kurt. "And there's strength in numbers."

Kurt held felt incredibly guilty. Not only had he intruded into their home, but he was making them fight. He looked up at Jean and forced a smile.

_I should just leave._

The smile must not have been that convincing because a concerned looked crossed her face.

A door to Kurt's left suddenly swung open. A brunette with two white streaks in her hair came running into the room. "I heard all the yelling, what happened?!" Her bewildered eyes searched around for the danger but found none as she looked around the room.

Kitty stepped aside and gestured to her right, "Rogue, this is Kurt. Kurt, this is Rogue."

She relaxed out of the fighting stance she had been standing in.

"What happened?" she asked as she slowly approached them.

"Keety saved me." Even Kitty seemed startled as Kurt responded. He hadn't said a word since they came in, and the others had just assumed he was mute.

"The mob?" Rogue asked quietly.

Kitty nodded. Rogue held out her gloved hand to Kurt. He hesitantly shook it, gauging her reaction to his hand. Kurt was surprised when she didn't scream or at least shutter. She gave a half smile. "Well it's nice to meet you Kurt."

* * *

**A/N: **What do you guys think of the supporting cast? What about their "house"?


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry for the wait! I'm sorry that this keeps happening. I think that from now on I will only be able to post on the weekends. I was thinking about this all week and when I finally had the time to write it...writer's block. Just my luck. But it's finally up! I'm trying to keeps Rogue's accent light, so don't freak out when she doesn't say things like "ah love ya sugah". Same goes for Kurt's accent. Okay, enough of this. Tell me when you think!

* * *

"Oh my god!" escaped from Kitty's lips.

"Vhat?" Kurt turned around, startled. Had he already done something wrong?

Rogue looked startled too. "Ya, what?"

"You smiled!" Kitty replied in a teasing tone. "That like, never happens!"

Rogue shot her a glare.

_If looks could kill_…

After Kitty lost her smirk Rogue finally turned to Kurt. "So what was all the yellin' about?"

Kurt looked down in shame. He had almost forgotten that Evan already hated him. Rogue looked around. "What did I miss?"

Just as it appeared that no one was going to say anything, Jean looked Rogue right in the eye. After several more seconds of silence, Rogue suddenly erupted.

"EVAN!" She slugged his arm, hard. "What is wrong with you?!"

Evan stumbled back slightly. "Ow! I didn't know! I didn't know!"

She just shot him an angry look before turning to Kurt. "I would like to formally apologize on behalf of this pinhead's ridiculousness."

Kurt just shook his head. "It's fine, he's probably right. I…I should leave." He turned for the door before a hand grabbed his arm. "Wait!" He turned to see a pleading look in Kitty's eyes. "Evan was just being a jerk. Don't you even think about leaving because him." Kitty shot Evan an irritated look before turning back to Kurt. "Please?"

Kurt looked into her eyes and then immediately realized it was a mistake. There was no way he would be able to say no to those eyes, especially not when she was holding on to him so tightly. A sheepish smile crept onto his face. "I...I guess I'll stay. But if I become a burden—"

He was cut off as Kitty nearly crushed him in a hug. "Yay!"

Despite her size, Kitty was coming quite close to crushing his ribcage.

"Um, Keety…you're…crushing…me."

She giggled. "Oh sorry!"

She hadn't realized how tightly she was holding onto him. She let go and apologized again as he gasped for air.

Even though he needed to breathe, he hadn't really wanted her to let go. She was the first person to ever **hug** him. He was surprised by how nice it felt. Sure, he had been held in a crushing "embrace" before, but this was the first time the person holding him wasn't wielding a weapon.

"I'm okay", he gasped in between breaths.

"Sorry!" Kitty chimed again.

When Kurt finally composed himself he remembered what he was going to say. "But If I ever become a burden, you need to throw me out."

Jean gave him a comforting look. "You won't be."

A genuine smile overtook Kurt's face.

"Besides, now that you know where we live, if you left we'd have to kill you", Kitty added sarcastically.

"You vould have to catch me first."

"And why couldn't I do that? Your tail serves as a pretty good hand hold…"

"I have powers too."

"Oh really?"

"I'm not just blue and fuzzy you know."

Suddenly there was a **bamf** and a small cloud of blue smoke was left in Kurt's place. They all coughed at the smell of sulfur and—brimstone?

* * *

"Where did he go?!"

They all looked in shock at where Kurt used to be standing. Kitty started clawing through the quickly dispersing cloud in panic. "Kurt!"

"Vhat?"

They all turned to find him hanging upside down on the light cables. Their eyes widened as there was another **bamf** and he appeared in front of them with another puff of smoke.

"Cool..." Rogue, Evan, and Jean all said in unison.

"Wait a second…"

Kurt turned to look at Kitty. "Vhat?"

"If you can teleport…why the hell did I need to pull you through a wall?!" Kitty slugged his arm. Kurt looked a little sheepish as he rubbed his arm. "Vell, um….it only works vhen I know vhere I am going, otherwise I might end up **in** a wall."

They all looked at Kitty.

"It's not that bad…" Kitty grumbled.

"Not all of us like spending our time in between spaces", Rogue added.

Kurt suddenly looked up, curious. "How did you know about vhat happened?"

"What?"

"How did you know about…Evan yelling?"

Even now Evan looked at the ground.

"That was me actually" Jean added quickly, trying to prevent another awkward silence from falling over the room.

"How?" Kurt was really confused now. _If it was Jean, how did Rogue know…_

"I'm a telepath. I projected what happened into Rogue's mind. I thought it would be easier than trying to…explain everything."

Kurt nodded. That explained all of her reactions to things he never said out loud.

He turned to Rogue. "If you don't mind my asking…" The look on her face told him she knew what was coming.

"If I make skin contact with someone, anyone, I absorb 'em."

"Absorb them?"

Rogue sighed. "Yes. I absorb their memories, their powers if they got any. The longer I touch, the longer I get the powers. It knocks most folks out." She laughed a little to herself. "But if I touch 'em too long..."

A long silence filled the room. Kurt understood.

"I'm sorry for—"

"Don't be, you needed to know", she said, holding up her gloved hands, "better safe than sorry".

Evan suddenly spoke up for the first time in a while. "One time she accidentally touched Kitty and phased all the way from the surface and landed on top of the table!"

Rogue shuttered. "Don't remind me. I hate fallin' through floors."

"You weren't the one knocked out for an hour!" , Kitty snapped.

"As I recall, **you **were the one that touched **me**."

Kitty grumbled something about it "being an accident" while Jean and Evan snickered. It was obvious that Rogue always won her 'arguments' with Kitty.

Kurt wasn't sure whether to ask Evan what he could do. He looked normal, so his mutation obviously wasn't simply a physical one. He was curious but every time he would try to make eye contact, Evan would look away. Kurt decided not to force the question.

* * *

After Evan and Jean settled and Kitty stopped grumbling to herself, it became obvious that Kurt wasn't going to ask about Evan. To break the silence, Rogue gave Kitty an expectant look.

"…what?" Kitty said, puzzled.

"Well are you going to feed him or not? He looks like he hasn't eaten in forever!"

It was true. Kurt hadn't eaten in days and his stomach was as starting to growl as the adrenaline wore off.

"Sorry!" Kitty called as she turned out and she ran through one of the doorways.

After Kitty left, Jean turned to Rogue.

"Are you crazy?"

"What?"

"Did you really just ask Kitty to prepare FOOD? Are you trying to poison him or something?!"

"I HEARD THAT!"

Rogue just smirked and lowered her voice. "I'm not stupid. Why do you think the camp stove keeps 'disappearin'?"

* * *

Kitty eventually returned with her arms full. She gave a Jean a quick glare before dumping the food on the table. "I couldn't find the camp stove, so it looks like we are just going to have to eat beef jerky and granola bars."

Kitty scratched her head, "I could have sworn I left it on the shelf after I made those hotdogs—"

"Those were supposed to be hotdogs?"

Kitty just glared at Evan.

"What?! Hotdogs aren't supposed to be blue!"

Rogue and Jean couldn't help but laugh at Kurt's startled expression. "It's better to learn this early Kurt. Kitty is a little ….culinary challenged." Rogue's comment earned her a pelt in the face with a package of beef jerky. "Just shut up and eat!"

Kitty grumbled something about "ungrateful jerks" as they all sat down.

Kurt peeled the wrapper off of a single package of beef jerky and tried not to immediately inhale it, but as soon as the package was open, the food was in his mouth. He cursed his high metabolism as he reached for his second serving.

"You okay there?" Kurt looked up, mid-granola bar to find everyone staring at him. He swallowed, and then replied, "I'm sorry. I have a very high metabolism…" he voice reduced to a whisper, "…and I haven't eaten in days."

Everyone at the table fell silent. They all knew what it was like to have your stomach fold in on itself with hunger. Many of them had to live on the streets for years; never knowing when or **if** they would have another meal.

Jean placed her hand on his arm, "Eat as much as you want. You are **safe **here."

She put a lot of emphasis on that word—safe. Why wouldn't she? It had been why they all hid underground. Why they had agreed to stay with people so very much different from themselves and yet the same. Why they were so unwilling to trust and so quick to run. Safety was what they wanted. So many times it had seemed to be in their grasp; only for it to slip away and for them to realize that it had never been close to start with.


	5. Chapter 5

_He was running. The glow of torches and the shouts of the men grew closer even though he was running like his live depended on it. Well, it did actually. Kurt knew that by now. On the occasion that he would look back, he was able to see the glint of knives and sounds of dragging bats behind him. He reached a familiar fork in the road. Why were these walls so familiar? It was like he had seen them in a dream…_

_He ducked his head as something was thrown at him and made a turn into the right alley. He immediately regretted it as he met a wall. The mob chasing behind him closed off his only escape. The man who seemed to be leading the charge stepped in front of the rest. The malice in his eyes did not bode well for Kurt._

_That's when he noticed the bat dragging behind him. The sound of wood on concrete seemed to echo inside his brain as the mob fell silent. His back was flat against the wall as he started to hyper-ventilate. The man's smile grew wider as he sensed Kurt's panic._

_He had seen this man before. It was like he was from a dream. The whole scene was. He felt like he had lived this, but at the same time had no recollection of it at all. As the he grew closer, Kurt found himself yelling at the man._

_"Vhat do you vant from me?" The question tasted familiar on his lips. That's when he started to falter. He felt like he had lived this before, in a dream perhaps. He was like a man who had just woken and was desperately trying to remember what was so vividly in his mind just moments before. Kurt fell to his knees as he tried to claw a clear memory out of his mind. His whole head felt muddy as he tried to remember. God why couldn't he remember?!_

_He only looked up at the man in front of him when he coldly answered, "I want you to die. Can you do that for me?"_

_Kurt's mind started to clear. Some one was supposed to find him. Some one was supposed to save him from this horrible nightmare. The man raised his bat above his head. Kurt tried to calm his breathing. It was going to be okay. Someone was coming. He was going to be—_

_That's when he felt the bat make contact with his skull. He fell from where he had been perched on his knees to the ground. The pavement felt cold on his face. His head started spinning and he felt like he was going to vomit._

_That's when the second blow came, this time to his side. Then the third. Suddenly the blond man wasn't the only one towering over him as he felt multiple hits at once. His throat let out a cry of pain as his ribs made a distinctive cracking noise. Blood was starting to flow down the side of his face as someone made a particularly deep slash on his temple._

_Suddenly he was being dragged across the pavement, into the mob. Even though his mind was foggy from the blows, the searing pain in his body reminded him of what was going to happen. _

_As he was dragged away, he found himself infatuated with the wall that he had been standing against. Why was it so familiar? He looked expectantly at the wall, almost as though he expected someone to just materialize from it. As he was being dragged farther away from the wall, he realized no one was coming. What he was trying to remember had been just a dream—he was alone in this place._

_Vicious bodies began closing off his view of the wall, and his vision was growing darker. He breath was labored and continued to get more difficult to maintain. The wall was the last thing he saw as they pulled him into darkness. _

* * *

A knock woke him. Kurt looked around to find himself in a cold room, wrapped in a blanket on what seemed like a concrete shelf that jutted out from the wall. Then it all came rushing back. The mob. Jumping between buildings with Kitty. The young mutants hiding. A long over-do dinner.

_Kitty saved me. _Kurt released the death grip he had acquired on the blanket when he had woken up. _It was only a nightmare…_

Another knock on his door interrupted his thoughts. He looked at the glowing digital clock on the floor besides him. 3:05 AM.

A third knock prompted him to climb out of his make-shift bed and he padded across the cold floor. Why was Kitty knocking at this hour? They had gone to sleep late, probably sometime around midnight. He has assumed that she had passed out on her identical concrete bed a couple of rooms over.

As he reached the door, he gave it a tentative pull, trying not to wake the others with a loud creak. As he slowly pulled the door open, he was greeted with a deeper than expected "Hello?"

Was that… "Evan?"

"Um…Hi." It was pitch black in the main room, but Kurt's eyes could see almost as well as if it were lit. Evan however, wasn't so lucky. Kurt could tell by the some-what disoriented look on his face and his planted hand on the wall that he had stumbled along the hall in complete darkness a couple times (and to be honest, had probably tripped).

"Um…can I come in?"

"Um, I guess." Why was he here? He hadn't even looked Kurt in the eye ever since Kitty had yelled at him, let alone said anything directed to him. He couldn't help but think that he was here to try to convince him to leave.

As Evan stumbled into the room, Kurt realized that he still couldn't see and quickly turned the lights on. After closing the door, Evan spoke.

"Um…Did I wake you up?"

"Not really. I vasn't sleeping that vell to start vith." Kurt shuddered at the thought of the nightmare.

Evan mistook Kurt's shudder for a shiver from the cold concrete. "Ya, the cement shelves aren't exactly comfortable."

It was true. Their beds had once been shelves that extended almost a quarter of the way into the room. Kurt had chosen to lie on the highest shelf, only five feet or so from the ground. The lower shelf was currently empty, and after looking around and realizing there wasn't really anything else in the room, Evan sat down on it.

"Sorry that I decided to come in so late. I'm just tired and I couldn't sleep—"

"Vhy did you come?" Kurt's voice was soft now. He tried to act like he wasn't hurt by Evan's rant earlier, but he wasn't doing a very good job.

"It's just…I'm sorry man."

Kurt suddenly looked up, a little shocked. "Vhat?' He hadn't expected any further conversation with Evan, let alone an apology. Kurt tried to look into his eyes to tell if he was joking or not, but Evan was having another staring contest with the ground.

"I'm sorry that I was bitching about Kitty bringing you home. I didn't know that you had met the mob." He said the last word with a mix of malice and fear.

"It's fine—"

"No, it's not. I'm sorry. I thought you were just some mutant who had run away on some teen-mutant hissy fit or something, not knowing what he was throwing away…"

"If I ever had anyzing like zat I vouln't vaste it.", Kurt interrupted. Evan paused for a second before continuing. "I didn't know you were running from the mob when Kitty found you. Kit never sticks her neck out like that for strangers. I had just assumed you were some kid wandering the street with a puppy dog look in his eyes."

"Vhat do you mean?"

"Kitty's done that before. One time, she brought back this huge jerk—Lance. She just kept saying how he was a 'misunderstood guy, down on his luck' like the rest of us. That guy thought he was such a badass, tried to play the alpha male role and everything."

"She brought him here?"

"No, this was a couple of months ago. We were living somewhere else. We decided to up and move when Kitty finally dumped his ass."

"Vhy?"

"I guess we just got tired of him coming back at two in the morning trying to win her back with half-assed apologies. It got old real quick."

Kurt laughed out loud at the thought of Kitty kicking this 'Lance' out on his ass.

* * *

"I still don't know vhy she did it."

"Just be grateful she did. The mob is seriously bad news."

Talking a bout this seemed to make Evan uncomfortable as he began to fidget. He finally met his gaze and Kurt's curiosity got the best of him. "Vhy?"

"Kurt, they don't just beat mutants up like most anti-mutant crowds do. They **kill** for fun. A lot of us have had close calls and we don't really want to give them a second chance."

They both stared at the ground. Neither of them really wanted to talk about their near death experiences right now, and it became obvious to both of them quickly.

Evan suddenly looked up with a little curiosity in his eyes. "You never asked about my powers?" What should have been a statement sounded very much like a question to Kurt. He raised his eyebrows. "Can you blame me?"

"Touché. Well do you want to know?"

"…Yes". Kurt's curiosity was getting the best of him tonight.

Evan held out his arm, balling his hand into a fist. Slowly, something began to happen to Evan's arm. A large, bone like mass generated under his skin. It grew larger and larger until it jutted out of his skin. The boney spike only stopped growing after it was more than six inches long. Kurt stared in silent wonder and shock.

"I'm sorry. Did I freak you out?" Kurt snapped back to the conversation.

"No. I've just never seen anyzing like it before."

"You aren't exactly common yourself fuzzy."

Kurt smirked. "Touché."

Evan smiled back and then retracted his spike back into his arm. His skin healed over instantly, like nothing had happened. He looked at the clock and then at the door. "I'm sorry for keeping you up. We should probably go to sleep." Kurt nodded and Evan walked to the door. Right as he was about to shut it behind him, Kurt called out to him.

"Yeah?"

"I accept your apology. Zank you." Evan just smiled. "Anytime. Goodnight Kurt."

After he shut off the lights, Kurt quickly wrapped himself in his blanket again. Almost as soon as his head hit his pillow, he drifted into peaceful, dreamless sleep.

* * *

**A/N**: I didn't have time to really read through this after I wrote it, so if there are more mistakes than usual, I am sorry. Also, no complaints about the not-that-subtle anti-Lance part of this chapter. This is a Kurtty fan fiction. I am allowed to do that.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**: I'm sorry the updates are coming so slow, but I am definitely not giving up on this. Now, onto business. Let's see who knows their X-men Evolution characters...

* * *

He loosened the tie around his neck as he slammed his door shut. _Freaking Mondays_, he thought to himself as he headed to his sink to wash the pen ink off his hands. As he turned the knob, it did nothing more than sputter pathetically, just like it had the day before. He tried the other knob. Nothing. He growled as he walked over to his mini-fridge and popped off the cap to his bottle, guzzling down half of contents. The old couch's springs gave a loud creak as he plopped down on them. "Shut up" he muttered to himself as he continued drinking his beer.

His week so far was going less than spectacular. The night before he had thought that he would finally be able to relax after a stressful week at work with his favorite hobby. He had been extremely lucky, he had practically stumbled on some blue mutant while he and his buddies were patrolling. This wasn't just any mutant either; this guy was king of the freaks. He had a tail and everything! The chase was perfect. The mutie kept running faster as he tried to get away. The man remembered as he practically burst into laughter when the mutie literally got down on all fours in a vain attempt to escape. His first mistake was letting himself get found—the second, making that right turn into the alleyway. It almost made it too easy to enjoy as he watched the little freak panic when they turned the corner, torches lit. He smiled to himself. The torches had been his idea. He thought they added a nice touch. It really helped bring out the fear in their eyes before he struck them down with his bat. He smiled over at the bat leaning against the wall in his back corner. It had been perfect. He had even thought of a clever retort to let the freak know his fate before his bat cracked his skull.

His grin faded into anger. Then _she _happened. Her voice only registered after the freak was pulled through the wall and out of his sight. Then he remembered her. He had seen her before. She had been his prey once too. She was the one that got away. Her powers made her a hard thing to kill, that was for sure. And now, not only had she evaded him, again, but she had denied him what was rightfully his!

His bottle shattered as it hit the wall. It was such a freaking waste! He stood up and walked over to the bottle, glaring at its spilled contents. _You're the only thing that bleeds easy anymore._ His hand balled into a fist and he suddenly struck the wall. He looked down to see a small flow of blood trickling down from his knuckles. He turned his hand, watching the blood glint as it caught the light, feeling the slight sting of the ink mixing into his cuts. Suddenly, he was hitting it again, this time with more force, more anger, more malice.

He hated his job. He hated his apartment. God, he hated this whole damn planet. And it was all _their_ fault. _Everything was_ _their fault_. As his fist struck the wall, he heard a yell from downstairs. He smirked. Good. At least maybe now the old bitch would come and fix the pipes.

Shortly after the shouts, he heard the landlord stomp her way up the stairs. "What the hell are you—" She stopped abruptly as she gazed the several fist shaped dents in the wall. She arched an eyebrow. "I'm not paying for that" she stated, her lit cigarette hanging from the corner of her mouth.

"I just want these goddamn pipes fixed", he replied, pointing with a few bloody fingers to the sink that refused to spit out anything but dust. He looked back to find her smirking. "Oh, didn't I tell you?"

He glared as he gritted his teeth. "What?"

Her smirk just got wider at his angry expression. "The water's going to be shut off until the end of the week. The city's doing some maintenance work on some pipes underground, and they had to shut off the water to this whole building to do it."

He cleared his throat, trying to hold back a scream "And _how_ exactly did this slip your mind?"

She turned around and started heading out the door, "Oh, I must have forgot sometime between when I was fixing the last door you broke in a drunken rage and when I was covering your ass when that mutie 'disappeared'."

He balled his hands up into fists again. His knuckles began to turn white. Right as he was about to hit the wall again, he saw a bob of half-bleached blond hair poke through the doorway again. "Oh, and Duncan, I expect payment for the holes in the wall by Thursday." A chuckle echoed down the hallway as his fist quite audibly broke through the drywall.

* * *

She made her way down the stairs as he broke through the wall again, chuckling. _What a psycho_, she thought to herself as she entered her own room, directly below Duncan. He was a pretty quiet tenant, minus the bi-weekly violent meltdowns he would have. But that's why he was living in her dump. He knew that if he got kicked out of here, there would be no where else to go, and so did she. That's why she got away with charging him twice as much as everyone else in the building—all two of them. Believe it or not, having some of the worst rooms in town wasn't as lucrative of a business as people would think. But with Duncan living here, it was. She could charge him twice as much on his rent and on the cost of replacing the things he broke, be it lamps or walls.

She was lucky he was so destructive. It was why even the other cheap landlords in town wouldn't take him. They were scared of him. And they had reason to be. There were rumors around the more shady parts of town as to what Duncan's "hobby" was (nothing that could be officially traced back to him of course). He was too good to leave evidence. Not that and the police really cared. They would find a lynched mutant here, a burnt one there, then feign interest for a couple of days to avoid the media backlash that would surely ensue if someone suddenly decided to care about mutants someday and dig up the old police records. They were all just covering their asses and pretending to do their jobs. That's what people pretended to do when it came to mutants. People would turn a blind eye in this town and pretend they saw nothing.

Unfortunately, that's what the other landlords were afraid of. Many saw how quickly Duncan would escalate. They feared for their own lives when he got **_angry_**. But she had something that they didn't. She knew about what he did. She had more than just rumors and gossip. She had blackmail. It's not everyday your noisiest tenant comes back drunk at 3:00 AM with a bloody baseball bat.

Some people may have called her crazy, pointed out that it made her more of a target. She had the only evidence connecting him to anything. He knew that. But he also needed her. She was the one who would provide an alibi for him when a private investigator (hired by parents of a run-away mutant) would come knocking. She could say that yes, he had come home at 8:00 PM, and no, he hadn't left until the next morning. The P.I. wouldn't dig any deeper, and Duncan would be cleared off of their 'suspicious persons' list.

Was it wrong of her to protect a potential (okay, it wasn't 'potential' anymore) mutant murderer? Probably. She didn't **_hate_** mutants. Not like he did anyway. She just didn't really care for them. But a paying customer was a paying customer, and she needed the money. Did that make her a bad person? Probably. She took another puff of her cigarette as she flopped onto her couch. _But being a good person doesn't pay the bills_.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **I had extra time this weekend, and I decided to spend it on this, since people have been sad about updates. Don't expect this on a regular basis though! This is a one-time thing!

* * *

Kurt's arms stretched above him as he finally convinced himself to crawl out of bed. He yawned as he slid out from his blanket. As he stood up, he noticed with more than a little soreness that Evan had not been lying about the shelf's…uncomfortableness. He rubbed his back as he padded across the small room to grab his trench coat. Even though he was going to be sore, this was still a better night's sleep than he had gotten in almost a year. He had slept too many nights on cold concrete without a blanket to be ungrateful of cold concrete with one. Kurt let out another yawn as he pulled his creaky door open.

He walked into the main room to find Kitty and Rogue already there, bickering about something that Kurt couldn't hear.

"Good morning" he interjected into their conversation.

They both quickly spun around. "Oh! Hey Kurt! Um, how long have you been standing there?" Was Kitty blushing?

"Just voke up. Vhat's going on?"

"Oh nothing! Nothing is going on. Nope. Nothing."

Kurt just raised his eyebrows at her. Rogue let out a snort and Kitty's face got redder. "Rogue!"

"I didn't say nothin'!" Rogue replied with a smirk, lifting her gloved hands up in mock defense. Kitty just glared at her. Sometimes, she just wanted to wipe the smirk off of that annoying little—

"Vhat's going on?" Kurt interrupted Kitty's thought. She snapped her head back to him.

"Nothing!" This provoked another snort from Rogue, and in turn, provoked another glare from Kitty.

Rogue finally cut off Kitty's glare and turned to Kurt. "Kitty's embarrassed."

"Rogue!"

"About vhat?" Kurt asked, ignoring Kitty's protests.

"She doesn't want to take you on a supply run, but if you'll be stayin', you're gonna need to know how."

"ROGUE!"

"What?" Rogue turned to Kitty with a mockingly innocent look on her face. Kitty replied by lunging out of her chair and tackling Rogue to the ground.

After the girls rolled around for a while, Kurt finally collected himself and interrupted. "I don't mind going."

Kitty suddenly looked up from where she had Rogue pinned. "Really?"

"Really. Like Rogue said, I need to learn." Honestly, Kurt had no idea what the girls had been talking about, or what he would need to do, but he was getting concerned about Kitty's general welfare on the ground. It was obvious that both of the girls were pretty evenly matched (it seemed that there was an unspoken rule regarding no-powers), but Rogue's long sleeves kept getting pulled back farther and farther and Kitty's short ones offered little protection. If Rogue's powers were really as bad as she had said—

Rogue took advantage of Kurt's distraction and pinned Kitty to the ground. Kitty's shocked face revealed how off guard she had been as she twisted uselessly against Rogue's iron-grip. Kurt let a small chuckle escape his lips. Kitty looked adorable, struggling like a little kid who had been caught stealing out of the cookie jar.

"Say Uncle!"

Kitty glared back. "Bite me." Rogue wasted no time in twisting Kitty's arm behind her back.

"Uncle! Uncle!"

Rogue rolled off of her and smirked as she readjusted her gloves. Kitty just stuck her tongue out at her as she dusted off her shirt.

"So vhat are ve doing?" He asked as Kitty walked over to the table again.

"It seems that I am taking you on a supply run." She shot Rogue a look before tossing a piece of beef jerky to Kurt. "Eat up; we have some walking to do."

* * *

Kitty played with a loose thread on her shirt as she tried to ignore Rogue. It wasn't working. "Kit, you know you have to."

"And why do I have to?" She wasn't even trying to hide the whiny tone in her voice anymore.

"We are runnin' low on food again. Besides, if he's gonna stay, we're gonna need some additional supplies for his room."

Kitty knew Rogue only was telling the truth, but she really didn't want Kurt to find out how they got their stuff, let alone have to help her do it. I mean it was just so…embarrassing!

"Kitty, you know you have to." Kitty just looked up, glaring at Rogue.

"Kitty, don't even. You knew this was going to happen when you brought him back last night. You knew it the second you walked in the door."

It was true. She had. But she didn't think it would be so soon! "Why do we have to do it TODAY? I mean, he just got here! It hasn't even been 24 hours and—"

"And he was gonna find out some time, so it's better that we find out now what kind of guy he is now. I'm sure he's dealt with worse. He's been livin' this life too Kitty. He's not like—"

"I know!"

Not like Lance. Kurt would understand what they needed to do to survive. Lance had lived his whole life as a spoiled only-child. His family had even accepted him when they found out about his mutation. But Lance was Lance, so when he didn't get what he wanted, he ran away, claiming that they wouldn't buy him a car because he was a 'freak'. God Lance was stupid. But he acted like such a bad boy, and Kitty fell for it. God, she was stupid.

She was stupid to think that after a lifetime of meals on silver platters, he would immediately—how did he put it? Oh yes, 'stoop to their level'—just for her. He thought himself too good to scavenge.

Rogue said aloud what Kitty was thinking. "That guy was a prick."

Kitty gritted her teeth. "I know."

"I mean, he comes in here, thinking he's all that, but the second he has to lift a finger—"

"I know!" Kitty hated this conversation. "I was naïve and stupid. Happy?"

"No need to get so touchy." Kitty just rolled her eyes. Rogue grabbed her arm and waited for Kitty to look her in the eye. "But you are still takin' him today."

Kitty groaned so loudly she didn't hear the door open behind them.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**: I'm sorry that these updates are coming slow. Only when I have a break will I be able to update more often. I write best late at night, and, believe it or not, staying up until 1:00 in the morning everyday isn't that great of an idea. I've also been trying to make my chapters longer, but again, that takes more time. Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy.

* * *

Kurt and Kitty made their way through another field. The yellowing grass rubbed against itself in a peculiar way as it was stepped on, making each piece sound like a tiny crackling fire under the mutants' feet. There had been an abundant amount of sunny days lately, making the already irritating lack of rain into a mild drought. Ever since they had left their cave, Kitty had vainly tried to shield her eyes from the too bright sun. The lights that she had strung up in the cave—although they provided light where there would have otherwise been complete darkness, and for this she was thankful—could not compete with the early summer sun. Every time she came out of the cave she assured herself that the more she practiced this routine, the faster her eyes would learn to adjust, yet every time she would force herself out of the underground darkness and into the light of the world, the more and more blinding it became to her.

They walked side by side, the tiny fires under their feet, as they pushed their way past the dying grass in the forest and the larger vegetation gave way to an open field. Although Kurt was fairly new to the area, he could still note that they were moving AWAY from the city as they tread on. He considered asking Kitty where they were supposed to be going, but the way she started a staring contest with the dead grass the second they had walked out the door indicated that she had no intention of starting a conversation. Her face had finally turned back to its pale hue, the red of embarrassment finally burned off her face when they had made their way up the stairs in equal silence. Well, almost equal silence—the sound of their steps echoing down the hallways of the cave in which he had recently taken residence had not made the lack of conversation awkward, but eerie. The crackling grass was more comforting to his ears and reminded him of less of a tomb than the long distorted sounds that traveled down the hallways.

This change in scenery did not have such a profound effect on Kitty. Although they had left the cold tomb and passed into the warm summer sun, her body had never quite relaxed as they trudged on. She had the body language of a soldier looking for invisible assailants, waiting for them to jump out of the bushes and attack either her or Kurt. He tried not to think about why she was so tense, about the all-too-real attackers that could be waiting for them where ever they were headed.

Kitty shielded her eyes as they exited from underneath a tree's noticeably dark shadow. "Vhat, don't like the sunlight?" He joked, trying to pry a response out of Kitty. It felt strange for her to be silent for so long.

Kitty looked up at Kurt from underneath her shielded eyes and smirked. "Oh, it's a nightmare for me. The sun burns, the peeling skin! You don't even want to KNOW about the aloe vera spa treatments I'm going to need after this."

Kurt smirked. It seemed the sarcastic, overconfident Kitty had returned, leaving no trace of the embarrassed Kitty he had seen that morning. Her blush, her twitching hands, even the soprano pitch of her voice. All were gone. She now swayed in her strides with her hands removed from her pockets. Although she looked alert, she now exerted confidence that seemed to say "Don't screw with me". The way she was walking now would make one think that she could take on The Mob itself.

* * *

It was a false confidence of course. The idea of facing an attacker, let alone The Mob, was absolutely terrifying. She had only once before faced Duncan's wrath by herself, and had only her haphazard use of her (then) still developing powers to thank for her survival. She had later seen the affect of the swing that Duncan had taken at the wall that she had disappeared behind. She had seen the dent that now existed in the brick wall her head had been leaning against only seconds before.

But Kurt didn't need to know about that. Really, nobody did. The only reason that Jean knew was because she was, well, Jean. Kitty did not find great comfort in sharing her feelings with others, laying her heart out for the world. To her, it felt like she was asking for someone to crush her. Asking for someone like Lance to come along, to take everything she trusted him with and twist it against her. Mock her in everyway he knew she feared and leave her in a state he knew would brings sobs, all for the sake of starting, and winning, an argument.

Kitty continued her façade as she restrained herself from curling up into a ball at the memory. Every time she had tried to trust someone with her innermost thoughts and feelings, ever since she had been revealed as one of _them_, she had been crushed and broken. She had learned to keep her sobs silent and her tears in her eyes as she tried to sleep night. She had learned to put on a mask, whether it be one of confidence, determination, or sarcasm. Anything to keep the fear from her face and out of the eyes of those she cared about. She knew that fear was weakness—and that the weak did not last long here.

* * *

They would talk casually as they continued their journey. Kitty would say something sarcastic. Kurt would smirk. They would keep walking. As the sun rose further across the sky, Kurt grew bored with this pattern.

He shifted his hands into his pockets as spoke aloud the question he had wanted to ask since they left. "So…vhere are ve going?" Kitty flinched but quickly recovered, hoping Kurt hadn't seen. She had at this point gained some hope that he wouldn't ask. She honestly didn't know how to answer. "We are…getting supplies."

"Avay from town?" he asked skeptically. Kitty cursed under her breath. She had, again, falsely hoped that Kurt wouldn't notice until they were already there. "Yes."

"Um…vhy?" he asked, trying not to sound rude.

Kitty stopped and turned to him. "Kurt, you couldn't even lose The Mob in the middle of the night. What makes you think we could waltz down Main Street looking for food in the middle of the day?" she finished, hands on her hips.

Kurt sighed and nodded. His mutation granted him incredible eye-sight, hearing, and agility, as well as the ability to teleport. He could definitely do stealth. Just not when it came to hiding in a crowd of other people. Then he stuck out like a sore thumb. A blue, fuzzy, yellow-eyed, sore thumb.

He turned back to Kitty, "You still didn't say vhere ve are going."

She had already started up her pace again. "You'll find out soon enough. We're practically there."

The dead grass beneath his feet reminded him of tiny blazes as he raced to catch up with her. "How far?"

He almost bumped into her as she came to a sudden stop again. "Right there" she said, pointing up to the top the hill that stood before them.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N**:As I promised, I have written more because I am on a break today. I bring this to you as a Thanksgiving present. Happy Thanksgiving!

Also, just to clarify, Kurt and Kitty are both 17 years old.

* * *

It felt like the hill had practically planted itself in front of them. Kurt did not remember seeing it until he looked up from Kitty, yet there it stood. The slope slowly curved up from the base, making the trek to the top irritatingly slow. The hillside was, of course, covered in yellowing grass, as it seemed everything was, but this was grass was different. It seemed to get less alive as they got closer to the top. As they grew closer to its summit, Kurt found that it was not a hill at all, but rather a valley wall that circled all the way around, leaving a sort of crater in the middle.

The crater was filled with various trash heaps, all different heights and widths. Many of them had obviously exceeded their expected capacity and toppled over. All were in different stages of decay, the objects in the toppled mounds least resembling their former glory.

Kitty turned to Kurt to gage his reaction. His stoic face showed none, disgust or otherwise. "Well now you know." Kurt's glazed over eyes snapped back to her, returning from what looked like a day dream. "Know vhat?" Kitty sighed. "How we live. How we get what we need without any money." Kurt gave her a sympathetic smile. "Trust me Kitty. I've had to live by worse means."

"What's worse than this?" she said, gesturing to the entirety of the junkyard.

He chuckled. "Begging on ze streets. Stealing bread just to survive. Being chased from homeless shelters, because even though you are among the 'unmentionables', you are still not vanted, not even there. Trust me Kitty, there are vorse things." Kitty stood in silent shock. After a moment, Kurt continued, "At least here, you are in control. At least here you can survive without being attacked and persecuted at every bend. This is a haven to some one like me Kitty. You are seeing vhat you don't have instead of vhat you do."

She didn't know what to say. Kurt was the first person she had met who had it worse than they did. She had never given thought to how much worse it could be. After a moment of silence, he said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to act disrespectful—"

"No", Kitty interrupted. "You're right. I need to stop wallowing in my own pity and get over it." After a moment Kurt looked back at her. "So, vhat's ze plan?"

* * *

Although the entire valley couldn't have been more than a couple miles wide, the city's waste seemed to go on indefinitely. This became even more evident after they had worked their way down into the valley. Cramped dirt paths wound through trash heaps throughout the valley. They had to walk single-file as Kitty led them through the maze to different sections of the junkyard. Rusting gears and rotting food gave way to newly deposited "trash", much of which looked as though it had hardly been used. Without so much as turning around, Kitty answered the question in Kurt's mind. "A lot of it looks really new because it pretty much is. People don't really throw things away when they have to, just when they want something new." She turned around, holding up something for Kurt to see. "Take this shirt for instance. It's not even faded, yet one little hole", she said, pointing to a rip less than a dime in diameter, "and into the trash it goes." She held it up to herself and smiled when it looked to fit. She stuffed it into her empty bag as they continued on.

They continued along the path, scavenging through the bottoms of the heaps for anything usable. Seeing as how Kurt didn't know what they would need, they developed a silent routine. Kurt would hold something up, Kitty would shake her head yes or no, and he would either throw back or place it in her bag. The two continued like this for a while, before Kitty interrupted the silence. "Was all that you said back there true?"

Kurt looked up, surprised. "Vhat?" Kitty busied her hands trying to untangle an extension cord. "Everything you said about it 'being a lot worse'? Did all of that actually happen to you?" Kurt sighed. "Yes. That and a lot more. It just occurred to me, ve don't know a lot about each other, do ve?" Kitty smiled. "No we don't. Tell me about yourself stranger."

"Vhat? My whole life story?" he asked teasingly. "Be my guess!" "How about you go first, since it vas your idea." Kitty bit her lip. She wasn't exactly excited to share something so personal with someone she knew so little about, but her curiosity was getting the best of her. He was mysterious, and she had secretly wanted to know what his past entailed. She would never say it out loud, but his accent was making him even more mysterious. She had discovered that she was developing a thing for 'mysterious'.

"I was born in Illinois, an only child. My family wasn't rich, but we definitely had more than enough. Both of my parents were engineers, so I started tinkering with stuff when I was young. I would take things apart and put them back together, just to see what made them tick, you know? I wanted to be just like my parents, but I wanted to do more than just build things too. I wanted to make things that people had never seen before, stuff that would change people's lives. What a pipe dream that turned out to be…" She sighed. After a minute she continued. "When I was 15 my powers emerged. I had a nightmare in the middle of the night and phased through my bed and into my basement. When my parents finally found me, I told them that I had just been sleep walking. Over the next couple of months I did a lot of "sleep walking" in the middle of the night. After a while, they got suspicious. When they threatened to take me to a psychiatrist, I finally told them. I think they had suspected, for a while, but they still freaked out. My mom practically had a mental break down over the fact that her daughter 'really was a freak'. My dad just kept yelling. After a couple days I threatened to leave. My father said they would be better off without me. I left that night, never looked back."

Kitty was surprised with herself. She hadn't meant to say that much, but the second she opened her mouth, it all just came out. Maybe she had needed to talk about this more than she realized.

"I'm sorry" was all Kurt said. "It's okay. I thought they would love me no matter what, but I was wrong. I was going to find that out sooner or later." She placed the finally re-wrapped extension cord in her bag and turned to Kurt. "I guess it's better than it was sooner rather than later, before I tried to trust them with something serious, right?" She added sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood. This elicited a slight smile from Kurt. She smiled back at him and for a little while they were just two people smiling, nothing more, nothing less.

Finally, Kitty snapped back to reality. "Your turn Fuzzy", she said, propping herself up on a half deflated yoga ball. She wagged a finger at him, "But make sure it's detailed. I'll settle for nothing less." He chuckled as he settled down on an old bar stool across from her. "Vhere to start..."

Through the next half hour he proceeded to tell Kitty about his life, starting with his birth in Germany. Although he was born different, like all mutants, his mutation was more obvious than most. He had been born a blue, fuzzy, three fingered boy. His mother abandoned him shortly after he was born and he was found floating down a river in a basket by his adoptive parents. The kind Wagners overlooked his appearance and raised him as their own. Although they loved him, it became obvious to him at a young age that he was not normal. They were forced to hide him in their section of the woods, unable to let him play with the other children, lest he be attacked by the villagers. They were eventually found out, and had to retreat into the wilderness while their house burned to the ground. They continually moved to new villages, living in secrecy as long as they could before Kurt was eventually found, attacked, and forced to flee. After nearly 16 years in the forests of Germany, and nearly as many different homes, Kurt had grown used to using the cover of the trees and had developed his acrobatic and teleporting abilities. When he was attacked while bringing fire-wood home, his parents found they did not have it in them to force him to uproot and flee into the forest again. Instead, they snuck him across the border into to France and used their life's savings to bribe a cargo ship's captain to let him gain passage to America, where it was rumored that those like Kurt were accepted.

Although the captain could care less about Kurt, his German first-mate took a special interest in the young mutant and taught him how to speak English, even going so far as to show him how to read and write it. He tried to warn him what he would experience once they docked, the trials that would lie ahead, but even he could not prepare Kurt for the hardships he would face. After they came ashore and went their separate ways, Kurt found that the rumors of mutant equality had been just that. He wandered from city to city, staying in a place as long as he could. It reminded him much of what had happened in Germany; although this time he no longer had his parents to comfort him.

"It began to look hopeless Kitty. I vas vorried that I vas doomed to spend my entire life vandering from place to place." He laughed to himself. "But then I met you." He looked up at Kitty, and she decided that she would never see a pair of more beautiful eyes. His golden eyes seemed to glow and only after he finally looked away did she realize that she had been staring at him for a good five minutes. She fought the crimson that threatened to light up her cheeks as she turned away from him, fiddling with a clasp on her bag.

"Is everything alright Katzchen?" She whipped around to face him. "Katzchen?"

He began to chuckle but was then forced to suppress full blown laughter as she glared at him. "Oh calm down. It means 'little cat'. Quite appropriate, don't you think?" She continued to glare at him. "Vhat?! You called me Fuzzy first. I just thought that I vould return ze favor." He replied, winking at her.

"You have to admit, the name suits you Kurt." She said, adjusting the bag on her shoulder. "You as well Katzchen." She rolled her eyes. "This is going to get old **real** quick." He followed her up a path as they made their way back to the bottom of the valley. "Admit it, you like it." She smiled to herself. She knew there was truth in his words, albeit she would never admit it.

"Do you remember how we got here?" She said, turning around so fast he almost ran into her. He stumbled and nearly fell over. "Vhat?"

"You said that you needed to know where you were going to teleport, so I repeat, do you remember how we got here?" His eyes lit up as he caught what she was getting at. "Ah, Lazy-Pants doesn't want to walk all the way home."

"That's MS. Lazy-Pants to you", she said, poking his nose. He laughed until she wrapped her arm through his. "Take us home Fuzzy."

"After you Katzchen."

Kitty snorted in reply as he **bamf**ed them away.

* * *

**A/N**: I also promised longer chapters, so congratulations, you have just read the longest chapter of "Underground" thus far. I was noticing that I keep getting kind of serious lately, so I decided to end it on a happier note this time. What do you guys think of Kitty and Kurt's interactions? What do you think of their new nicknames? Too much fluff? Not enough? Let me know. Also, shout-out to Creatorx33 for guessing what was over the hill.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N**: I didn't really have time to edit this, so there are probably going to be mistakes. Sorry! Try to enjoy it anyway!

* * *

They arrived just a few feet in front of the entrance to the tunnels. Kitty's head started to reel and, she dropped to the ground, her shaking hands barely catching her. Kurt immediately dropped beside her, "Keety what's wrong?!" After taking a few deep breaths she let out a shaky reply, "Vertigo…I think". It felt like her head had been stretched through a long tube, part of her mind reaching the end well before the rest of it. A few more deep breaths and the feeling started to dissipate. She leaned back onto her knees and let her hands cradle her head as she sat up. She looked up at Kurt to find a sheepish look on his face. "What?" He rubbed the back of his neck, "Um…I forgot. There are…side effects."

"How did you 'forget' about the—?" she began to yell, but curled back to the ground as a wave of nausea hit her. Kurt felt an equally powerful wave of guilt wash over him. "I'm sorry! I don't feel the effects myself, and it's been so long since I've teleported another person—"

"Save it.", she said, pulling herself back onto her feet. "I'll be fine. I can recover faster than you did." She flashed him a smirk. "Vhat do you—vait, that's different, you pulled me through a wall!" Kitty stood as quickly as she could. "You pulled me through time and space!" she yelled, fighting another wave of nausea. Kurt chuckled. "You are about to throw up. I think I handled myself better than that." Kitty glared at him. "At least I didn't sit here gasping for air like a drama queen, looking like a deer in headlights."

"You knew vhat vas happening! I vas pulled through a vall right before I vas about to have a bat in my head! I think my shock is justified" he countered. She rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, she remembered a detail from last night that her mind had glazed over in the rush of adrenaline. "What does 'schutzengel' mean?" Kurt's eyes widened "I don't know vhat you're talking about." She narrowed her eyes. "You know exactly what I am talking about. That's what you called me after I phased you through. Your eyes were even wider than they are now." "Nothing. I vas confused. Pure gibberish." Kitty crossed her arms and gave him a skeptical look. It was obvious to both of them she didn't believe him.

"It vas nothing, really!" Kitty just groaned and marched past him and through the door. Only after he gasped for air did he realize he had been holding his breath. He slowly shook his head as he creaked open the ancient door. _If she only knew…_

* * *

"Go fish." Kitty sighed and reached for the pile of cards in the middle of the table. "Jean I'm getting tired of this. That's the third time in a row." The redhead chuckled. "I'm sorry, but I don't have any of the cards you need. Maybe you should start asking someone else." She turned her glare to the mutant on her left. "Rogue, do _you _have any fives?"

"Uh, uh, uh. It ain't your turn any more. You already got a card from the middle. Now it's my turn." Kitty slumped back into her chair. "Fine". Rogue cleared her throat before asking with a smirk on her face, "Kitty, do you have any fives?"

"Hey! No fair!" Rogue's smirk got wider. "It's totally fair. You just really suck at this game." Kitty glared at her as she begrudgingly handed over her card.

Evan and Kurt laughed from across the table. This was their third game with the deck of cards they had retrieved that morning, and Rogue had won all three. It wasn't exactly a hard game, and the stripe haired mutant had always had a thing for cards. She hadn't found it hard to take everyone to the bank. They all decided to start betting to actually make the game interesting. Sadly, they didn't really have money, so they had to substitute gum instead. Rogue had collected enough to give her cavities.

The game made its way around the table again to Rogue and with little surprise, she finished the game. She pulled the pile that lay in the center of the table to her and smiled as swept them into her arms and stood. "Well it's been nice playing with y'all, but I think I'm going to go enjoy my winnings."

"I swear she was cheating or something…" Evan laughed. "Kit, how do you cheat at Go Fish?" She turned her glare to him. "Do you think if I knew she would be the one with all the gum?" Jean patted her on the back. "There's always next time." Kitty grumbled to herself as she shuffled the cards. Jean placed her hands on Kitty's shoulders and turned around. "Do you want to train?"

Kitty's eyes lit up. "Actually, yeah. Me and you, or me and Evan?" Evan's eyes widened. "Um, how about you and Kurt?"

"Vhat?"

"Just admit it Evan, you don't want to get your ass handed to you again", Kitty teased. Evan protested, "I was tired!" She just smirked. "From what, sitting in your room all day?"

"Hey I—"

"Let it go Evan", Jean interrupted. She got up and headed towards her room. "I'll be reading if anyone needs me" she called as her door closed behind her. Kitty stuck her tongue out at Evan. "See? Even _Jean_ says that you got your ass handled to you!" "Don't rub it in" he grumbled. Kitty leaned across the table to him. "So want to give it another go?" He got off of his chair and rapidly shook his head. "I'm not crazy." He shuffled his way to his room and quickly closed the door.

"I guess that means it's just me and you." Kitty got up and began walking to one of the doors opposite to their bedrooms. As she reached the doorway she turned around, and gestured for Kurt to follow. He slowly got out of is chair and paced across the room. He joined Kitty at the door as he asked, "Vhat vere you guys talking about?"

"Training."

"Vhat do you mean by 'training'?"

Kitty laughed at his confused face and winked at him. "Don't worry Kurt; I'll go easy on you." She tugged the door open and pulled him inside. "Welcome to the Danger Room."

* * *

**A/N**: Ten chapters already. Wow. I want to thank everyone who has read and give a few shout-outs to Dragoncat, CreatorX33, and Eternal Dreamer's Stories, all of which have reviewed almost every chapter. Thank you guys, you are awesome. I really means a lot that people review, and I can't wait to read more of them. Let me know what you think of the idea of the Danger Room, and I'll write the next chapter accordingly.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** I'm sorry if the Danger Room doesn't live up to your expectations, but hey, they are living on a budget of zero! Side note, to the guest who posted about me saying "Zank you" instead of "danka" (actual German), I used the accented English version because it wouldn't make sense for him to say something to her that he knew she wouldn't understand (spoiler alert: Kitty doesn't speak German).

* * *

She pulled him into a space structurally identical to their living room. The ceiling was curved and the walls composed of cement, industrial lights donning the space where they met. Though they were carbon copies, Kurt couldn't find anything else similar between the two rooms. Instead of bare walls he found that bright red target of every size had been painted all the way around they room. What looked like mechanical leftovers of a failed science project adorned the spaces in between, some occasionally twitching. The combination of these strange decors made it look like the room itself was alive—bleeding—every robotic twitch a call to be put out of its misery.

"Are you coming or what?" she called to him. Kurt had been gawking from the doorway so long he hadn't noticed her wander to a rectangular metal table across the room. He slowly made his way to Kitty along the wall, taking care not to trip on any of the hundreds of extension cords winding their way around the edges of the room. Kurt continued to stare in confusion at the room's fixtures and couldn't decide whether it was amazing or horrifying.

"Calm down" Kitty interrupted as she looked up, "It's not like something's going to fall apart if you touch it." She turned her back to Kurt and continued to busy herself with something on the table. As he approached her, he noticed that most of it was occupied by a large panel. The table was large and surprisingly clean of debris considering the rest of the room. The panel itself looked liked a frustrated child's jigsaw puzzle, the buttons, pieces that were never meant to be together but had been bent to fit. Many were in different stages of rusting, while some looked brand new without a scratch. "Vhat is all of this?" he finally asked.

"Everyone's nicknamed it 'The Danger Room'. I thought we would just call it, I don't know, 'The Training Room' or something, but they didn't think that did it justice. I don't think they're too fond of what I've done with the place." Kurt hesitated before asking, "Vhat **_you've_** done with ze place?"

"Everything in here is something that I've tinkered on."

Confusion still clouded Kurt's face. "How in ze world did you make all of this?"

"I just scavenged anything even remotely resembling gears until I came up with some real parts. You'd be surprised by what people will throw away! Most of this stuff was still in working condition…kind of."

"Kind of?"

"I was able to get most everything working with little tweaks and part replacements. A few were a little more difficult to deal with, but I got them up and running eventually. But this..." She turned to the large control board in front of her, "I built this baby from scratch," she said, lovingly rubbing the side of the panel. "Every piece on here had to be hand-picked and tested for compatibility with the mainframe. Not a single button or dial on here is from the same machine. This one is from a timer. This one's from an alarm clock…", she said pointing to different switches. "But vhat can you do vith those? I don't mean to be rude, but an alarm clock is an alarm clock. How did you get all of this from all those pieces?"

A mischievous look donned Kitty's face as she continued, "Well I …**_modified _**them."

"Um…care to explain **_modified_**?"

"Oh you know, just integrated machines that were never meant to be combined and re-wire them to do things their inventors never dreamed of." The mischievous look returned and she suddenly grabbed Kurt's arm in excitement. "Want to see?!"

Kurt was shocked by the sudden contact and almost recoiled back from it, but quickly reminded himself that if he was going to stay here, he would need to get used to the idea of people actually **_touching_** him. He was reminded of the hug Kitty had given him the day previous, remembered her wrapping her arms around him. He was certainly warming up to the idea of Kitty touching him…He shook the thought from his head. "Sure."

Kitty didn't seem to notice any of this and turned quickly to the panel. Her experienced fingers ran rapidly over the switches as she flipped them into different positions. "Pick a target" she said, barely turning her head up from the controls. "Um…that one", Kurt replied, pointing to a lopsided target about twenty feet away. He looked back to find her head turned back down, putting the last pieces in place. Finally her fingers stopped and she turned back to Kurt. "Show time."

Three mechanical arms suddenly emerged from the clutter near the ceiling. Though initially unstable looking, their motions were fluid and seamless as they all turned and aimed in tandem. The cannons glowed and on an imaginary count of three, the room saw a flash of yellow light. Kurt heard the cannons slide back into their places as he lowered his hand from in front of his eyes, revealing a singed bull's-eye. "Vhat vas that?"

Kitty smiled. "It's a directed energy cannon. I configured the processor to condense the energy being fed into it through the energy conduit to concentrate it enough to actually make a semi-solid beam projectile."

Kurt just stood there in confusion and awe. Intelligent, beautiful, and kind. Jesus this girl was perfect. After a second of Kurt staring at her, she giggled. "It's basically a laser gun."

"How ze heck did you make that?"

"I used some gears from the heaps at the dump, but most of them are composed of pieces of old laptops, air ducts, microwaves…" Kitty began counting off her fingers.

"You made that out of a microwave?!"

She laughed. "Multiple microwaves", she pointed out. Kurt rolled his eyes. "You are missing ze point. You are a genius."

Kitty suddenly turned to the panel and busied herself with messing with the dials. Was she blushing? After a second, she turned back to Kurt. "You really think so? I mean, it's pretty simple stuff, anyone could do it. With a manual and parts and equipment I mean—" "I really think so", he interrupted the babbling, placing his hand on her shoulder. "This is amazing Keety. That dream of yours, to invent great things? It's already happening." She gave him a grateful look. "Thank you. You have no idea how much that means to me." She placed her hand on his. "Really."

She looked up and became immediately trapped in his gaze. His golden eyes were warm and soothing beyond anything she could have dreamed they could be. They were brighter than any energy blast she could build. They had an intensity of their own. They had already pierced her heart and she knew it. No amount of struggling could prevent that. She had hid so long, and yet this boy was able to break through every shield she had ever built just by looking at her. She knew he would be the end of her, and as he tightened his hand around hers, she realized she didn't care. Her other hand reached his face, and she leaned in closer.

A sudden knock on the door shocked them back to reality.

Kitty cringed as Kurt dropped her hand and Evan entered the room. "Hey Kit, do you know where Rogue put the…Are you guys in the middle of something ?" Kurt's head immediately snapped up. "Nothing. In fact I vas just leaving. " Kitty must have hid the hurt on her face well, because Kurt started walking. "In fact, I think I should go to bed. It's getting late." He quickly said goodnight to Evan and **bamf**ed away.

_Nothing? He thought that was nothing?!_

Evan looked to the dissipating smoke cloud, then to Kitty. "Um, I was just wondering where Rogue put the cards."

"On top of the bookshelf" she squeaked, never looking up from the ground as she phased through the door. She ran to her room, thankful that she reached her it before she started to cry.

* * *

**A/N:** Oh snap. Please tell me what you think is going on in Kurt's head right now. I really want to see your guesses.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** I know this is really short but I have been supper sick all week and I'm leaving town tomorrow morning, so this is the best I have for now. I'm sorry if there are a lot of mistakes, I didn't have time to edit it at all. Please tell me what you want in the next chapter when they finally talk and I will try to make it happen as penance for this.

* * *

Kurt sat on his bed, lobbing a tennis ball across the room. He studied the arc of it as it hit the cement and rebounded back into his hand. He had nearly perfected his toss, trying his best to hit an imaginary spot on the wall across from him. It continued to hit the spot again and again, the **_pong_** it made on contact turning into a steady beat as it struck up a tempo. Kurt's mind began to drift as the boredom seeped back into his mind. He had been playing this little game for the better part of an hour. He was quickly discovering how mind-numbing the tunnels could be.

Without any intimation of the sun, they distorted your sense of time. What felt like hours alone could be only a few minutes in reality. Only the glow of his clock assured him that he hadn't been sitting by himself all day. He didn't mind being alone. His mind had trained itself to cope without human contact for weeks—but that was before he moved here, before he had screwed things up.

What happened with Kitty the night before was terrifying. He had overstepped his bounds, and he knew it. She was just trying to be nice and thank him for the compliment, placing her hand on his, squeezing—but then he squeezed back. She was obviously trying to think of a way out without being rude, that's just how nice she was. Why else would she have stared at him so long? But he got trapped in her sapphire eyes and couldn't think. In that moment he forgot who he was and **_what_** he was. He had tried to **_kiss _**her.

He was thankful beyond words that Evan had walked in when he did. If he had been a second later, Kurt would have already thrown away the first friendship he had ever had. _Maybe I already have_. The thought grounded him to reality. After all, trying to kiss your best friend doesn't really do wonders for your friendship. After he got back to his room, he told himself that he would try to find a way to apologize to Kitty in the morning. Although he told himself that he would look everywhere for her, he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to. He had no idea what he would say—what would fix **_this_**? He contemplated every word he knew, German and English, and decided that there wasn't anything that could. So instead he tapped his foot to the beat of the ball and wrote his apology and goodbye to Kitty in his head.

* * *

She glared at the broken gear in her hands. It was more delicate than she thought. Everything she was working on today seemed to be that way. She breathed in slowly and settled a replacement part in front of her. She concentrated on it and continued to try to bring another cannon online. After a moment, the machine began to respond, beeping cheerfully as she tested its different settings. After a final systems check, she mounted it to the wall and examined the room. _What else?_

Kitty grabbed her toolbox and moved through the different grids looking for needed repairs. She needed something to busy her hands and her mind. She smiled as she found a faulty wire, but it left her face as she realized the simplicity of it. It would take time, but no brain power. She had done it a million times and had memorized the process long ago. She sighed as she crawled under the wire and started working. After five mind-numbing minutes she finally let her thoughts wander to what she had been avoiding all morning: Kurt.

The night before was horrible. She had overstepped her bounds, and she knew it. He was just trying to be nice, compliment her! Then she messed it up, like she always did. She grabbed his hand and he just stood there in shock. Why else would he stare at her so long? But she was too entranced by his eyes to notice or care, and she tried to **_kiss_** him! Was she that desperate? She had only known him for two days and she had already tried to kiss him! She realized how stupid she was being as soon as Evan broke them up, but it didn't make the sting of Kurt's words hurt any less. "_Nothing?_" echoed back through her mind. She knew she was overstepping her bounds, but was that moment really **_nothing_** to him? Had she imagined him squeezing back?

Kitty had to physically shake herself. Of course she had imagined it. He obviously just wanted to be friends. She doubted that he even wanted to be that anymore. She was surprised by how deeply that saddened her. Losing Kurt she realized was going to be even worse than losing Lance ever was. Lance thought she could be a nice piece of ass. Kurt thought she could be an engineer. At least he used to…

She needed to find a way to make this right. She couldn't lose him, not this soon. As she tinkered with the broken wire, she tried to think of a way to convince him to stay after all this. Her mind continued to contemplate an apology until she heard a faint knock on the door.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N**: Hopefully this chapter is better than the last. I'm still toying with Kurt's accent, so don't freak out if it isn't completely consistent with every other chapter.

* * *

He held his curled fingers over the rusted door, waiting. What he was waiting for, he didn't know—a sign perhaps? A sign that she would forgive him, that this wasn't going to be as horrible as he had imagined over and over as he pulled himself out of his room? Kurt was surprised at how long the walk across the living room felt when he was about to lose everything. His two-toed feet felt like lead, but he couldn't bring himself teleport to the door Kitty had been hiding behind all day, so he trudged on. Once he reached it, he had raised his hand to knock, and there it had stayed. He was frozen, lifeless, as he tried to muster up enough courage to simply knock. He tried to convince himself that he was waiting for the perfect moment to apologize. He almost laughed despite himself. There was no 'perfect moment' to throw everything away.

With that thought, he quickly knocked on the door and immediately regretted it. He wasn't ready. He didn't want to give this up, not yet, not ever. This was the first group of people who had shown him such kindness, the first to offer him shelter, food, friendship, since he parted with his parents. But despite all their kindness, Kitty had gone above them all. She had given him something that no one in his life had. She had saved his life without a second thought and had never—**_never_**—so much as flinch when he touched her. Not even his parents could brag that. Though they had accepted him within a week, his mother later admitted that she was scared to touch him the first few days, his glowing eyes frightening her. Kitty didn't pull away from his gaze in fear, not once. She never shied from his touch, not even when he had grasped her hand. Not even when he had leaned down to her lips—

An emotionless "come in" from behind the door brought him back from the memory. Panic set in as he twist the door knob and thought of the unforgiving eyes that surely awaited him on the other side. He tried to calm himself by remembering the apology:

_"I'm sorry to interrupt, but this vill only take a moment. I vant to apologize for my actions. All of zhem. I had no right to barge into your home, and I definitely had no right to do vhat I did last night. I know I have overstepped my bounds and I am sorry. I know you don't feel zhe same vay, and zhat is vhy I am apologizing. I never should have tried vhat I did, and I know you probably vant me out, so I am leaving today."_

He would wait for her reaction. She would probably yell, but then again, she was Kitty. She was too nice to him to yell at him. She would probably listen closely and quietly accept his apology. She might even try to persuade him to stay again, despite everything. No, that was too much to hope for. Not even Kitty was that charitable. Either way, he knew that he could not stay, not even if she lost her sanity and begged him to. He could not bear to be 'just friends'. He refused to torture himself with the thought that she may someday develop feelings for him. He knew it was never going to happen, but the thought would still cross his mind every time he saw her. He couldn't live like that. It would drive him mad.

Every rehearsed word escaped his mind as the door closed behind him and he saw Kitty standing before him. She looked comfortable in loose blue jeans that had frayed from months of being dragged under her black sneakers. Her gray sweatshirt gave evidence of her morning repairs, sporting fresh oil around the cuffs and sleeves. Chestnut bangs had fallen out of her shoulder-length pony tail, framing her pale face. Despite the occasional black splotches smudging her porcelain cheeks, she still looked stunning. Her eyes were still deep royal blue oceans that Kurt wanted nothing more than to lose himself in. He dove into her eyes, not knowing if this would be the last time he would ever see them.

His not-so well written speech was lost to him, and he struggled awkwardly to find words. "I'm sorry to interrupt" he started, gesturing towards her toolbox, "I didn't know you vere vorking." Of course he knew she would be working, but he was trying to pretend that he hadn't spent the entire morning trying to find her, only to lock himself away when he finally did.

"No problem. I was just um…working on a faulty wire…no big."

_Crap._ She hadn't anticipated that Kurt would try to find her so soon. She had no idea what to say. She started wiping her hands on her sweatshirt, the new pitch additions looking like stripes on a demented grey zebra. Her eyes widened as she looked down at herself. She was wearing her repair clothes. _Crap._ She brushed the clean back of her hand against her cheek, and pulled it away to find an inky smear. _Great. Just great_. To make everything worse, she was covered in **_grime_**, in front of **_Kurt_**, right before she needed to apologize for trying to **_kiss_** him. Now he could be even more disgusted than usual.

Kitty realized Kurt was still staring at her. She could feel her cheeks burning with blush under the black splotches. She needed to say something fast, before he could run away—again. "So…um…about last night." The lengthy silence that followed and Kurt's terrified expression didn't exactly boost her confidence that he wouldn't just teleport out of the room. As she opened her mouth she heard "I'm sorry", but found that the voice that said it was not her own.

After a moment, she spoke. "Sorry for what? I was the one that—"

Kitty was cut off as everything that Kurt had wanted to say came out all at once. "I'm sorry that I tried to kiss you. I over stepped my bounds. I understand that you don't feel the same vay. I'm leaving."

Kitty stood back, eyes wide. After a moment, she crossed the space between them. "Kurt, I…I was the one that…I had tried to…" She continued to pace towards him as she struggled to find the words she wanted to say. By the time she came to her senses, he was at arms length. "I wanted you to kiss me Kurt. That's why I grabbed your hand and leaned towards you. I thought you didn't want to, and that's why you ran away after Evan came in."

Kurt's golden eyes glowed with hope. "I zhought you vere just trying to be nice…I zhought you just wanted to be friends…Zhis morning I zhought you vanted me gone."

Kitty grabbed his hand, closing the space between them. "Please don't leave Kurt. You just got here. I want to see what this…", she was clutched his furry hand hopefully, "might be." Kurt gave her a warm smile, revealing two white fangs where his canines she should have been. Kitty giggled. "Vhat?" "You have fangs Kurt." He dropped his smile. Kitty pouted. "Oh come on, they're actually really…cute." Even though her delivery was shaky, it was true. When she started liking fangs, she had no idea. Maybe it was when she started liking blue fur…

"Do you really think so?" he asked hopefully. She wasn't freaked out! Then again, she had never freaked out on him. He was liking her more every minute. "I really think so. They're charming."

"Charming?"

"And unique. You don't find many single guys with fangs." Kurt raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying all the **_other_** guys with fangs are taken?" Kitty gave him a smirk. "Yes. All the smart girls figured out how endearing they are before I even got to the party." Kurt let out a laugh. "You really are a wonderful girl Katzchen. Spots and all." After a moment Kitty's eyes widened and her cheeks turned cherry-red. She had completely forgotten that she was still covered in grease and shrieked as she hastily tried to wipe it off of her face with her sleeve. "Calm down Katzchen, you're making it worse." He grabbed a rag from her tool box. With a sudden **_bamf_** there was nothing but smoke in front of Kitty. Another **_bamf_**, and he was standing next to her again, the rag now wet. "Come here."

Kitty walked to him and held as still as possible as he started wiping the streaks off of her face. He began to recover her porcelain face as stripes washed away. One spot on her cheek refused to come off, so he wet his fingers with the rag and hesitantly began rubbing his thumb in a small circle on her cheek. Her skin was softer than he had expected. As the spot cleared, he started to pull away.

"Don't."

Her eyes were closed as she said it. He cocked his head to the side. "But the spot's almost gone." She kept her eyes closed and smiled. "I know." She finally opened her eyes, revealing the sapphires Kurt loved so much. She tilted her head and let all thought leave her as she leaned in to kiss him.

Then came a loud knock. Kurt immediately released her and she laughed. "Just can't get any privacy around her, can we?" She then sighed and opened the door. "Yes?" A frustrated Evan stood behind the door, holding what loosely resembled a clock in his hands. Kitty rolled her eyes. "What happened?"

"Well I was just trying to tell a joke and she just freaked—". Kitty held a hand up to his face. "Rogue crushed your clock didn't she?" He sighed and nodded. She lowered her hand and waited for him to pass it to her. "I'll see what I can do. In the mean time, try to leave Rogue alone. I hardly think she'll be so gentle next time", she said nodding her head to bleached hair. "Remember last time you tried 'apologize' with more jokes?" His eyes widened and his hand immediately flew to his hair. "That was not funny." Kitty snorted. "Sure it wasn't", and slammed the door shut.

She moved the clock over to her makeshift work bench and motioned for Kurt to join her. "Since it seems we aren't going to get any privacy around here, want to know how to reassemble a digital clock that's spent a round in the ring with Rogue?"

"Only if you tell me vhat happened last time Evan tried to 'apologize'."

Kitty laughed. "Deal."

* * *

**A/N**: Sorry, no kiss yet. Don't worry, it's coming...


End file.
